… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Tag: Palestine Action

  • 94-year-old human rights lawyer among hundreds of protestors arrested in test of Burnham’s mettle

    Spread the love

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-conference-palestine-action-protest

    The arrest of 94-year-old human rights barrister Margaret Owen OBE, now thought to be Britain’s oldest alleged terrorist

    Nearly 4,000 people have now been arrested for peacefully supporting Palestine Action since it was designated a terror group in July 2025

    ANDY BURNHAM faced growing calls to deproscribe Palestine Action today as hundreds of protesters as old as 94 were arrested for supporting the banned group during his first Labour Party conference as PM.

    Scores of police hauled away more than 230 demonstrators who sat outside the conference in Liverpool holding home-made signs which read: “I support Palestine Action.”

    Many of those arrested for alleged terror offences were pensioners, who chanted “free, free Palestine” every time a supporter was carried away.

    They included 94-year-old human rights barrister Margaret Owen OBE, now thought to be Britain’s oldest alleged terrorist, and 63-year-old ecologist Jonathan Hill. 

    Mr Hill said: “I’m here today because I want to test Andy Burnham’s mettle. I want to give him a dilemma and the opportunity to show what kind of man he is.”

    Retired teacher Teresa Garlake, 63, added: “I am here to urge the PM to reflect on who the real terrorists are.

    “This will be the eighth time I have held a sign, in solidarity with the people of Gaza, which is likely to lead to my arrest. It continues to be a great honour.”

    Nearly 4,000 people have been arrested for peacefully supporting Palestine Action in protests organised by Defend Our Juries since it was designated a terror group in July 2025.

    Massive Attack member Robert Del Naja (also known as 3D) joined their number as thousands attended a pro-Palestine demonstration calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel outside the ACC Liverpool on Saturday.

    Mr Burnham has yet to comment on the ban since taking over from Sir Keir Starmer despite the TUC and more than seven in 10 Labour party members opposing it.

    Defend Our Juries spokesman Tim Crosland told the Morning Star: “This is the first major sign holding action since Andy Burnham became PM.

    “And it is a pretty clear reminder that nothing has really changed because if you’re still arresting people quietly opposing the genocide and you’re still allowing Elbit Systems to send drones to the Israeli Defence Forces with impunity, it tells pretty much all you need to know.”

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-conference-palestine-action-protest

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel's genocide.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.

  • Hundreds to risk arrest today calling for PM to lift the ban on Palestine Action

    Spread the love
    BBC Cardiff July 2026 – Credit R Witts Photography

    Defend Our Juries will host a mass, silent signholding vigil in Liverpool this Sunday, 27 September, to coincide with the opening day of Andy Burnham’s first Labour Party conference since becoming Prime Minister. It is expected that several hundred people will gather as close to the conference center as they are able and at approximately 1pm will begin to write seven words on a sign that is likely to lead to their arrest under the Terrorism Act. 

    The words are; 

    “I OPPOSE GENOCIDE. I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION”

    The action has been designed as an integrity test of the new leadership’s commitment to ending Britain’s complicity in Israel’s ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

    Those attending the action have been asked to wear red, echoing the red jumpsuits typically worn by Palestine Action to show solidarity with those who took direct action with the group, primarily targeting weapons manufacturers sending arms from the UK to Israel. 

    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine 'Private Eye'.
    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.

    An increasing number of Palestine Action ‘actionists’ are facing sentencing as ‘terrorists’, despite their actions taking place before the group’s proscription, with many also being held for months or years on remand in prison whilst they await trial.

    Speaking today, a Defend Our Juries spokesperson said;

    “We will be peacefully sitting outside the Labour Conference because if PM Burnham means what he says, that he plans to end Britain’s complicity in Israel’s horrific crimes, then he would stop the arrests of people peacefully demonstrating against the genocide and the authoritarian attempts to crush its opponents. 

    We urge PM Burnham to do the only sensible thing and lift the ban on Palestine Action, the very people in the UK actually trying to prevent British complicity in Israel’s war crimes.”

    Sunday’s action will continue Defend Our Juries’ campaign to Lift The Ban on Palestine Action which, since July 2025, has seen over 3,600 arrests under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding such signs. Previous polling showed that the majority of Labour party members opposed the ban, which has cost the police millions to enforce.

  • Hundreds Set to Defy Palestine Action Ban at Labour Party Conference

    Spread the love

    https://novaramedia.com/2026/09/18/hundreds-set-to-defy-palestine-action-ban-at-labour-party-conference/

    Peter Speller/Sipa USA

    Campaigners hope to pressure Andy Burnham into reversing proscription.

    Hundreds of people will hold signs reading ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’ outside the first Labour party conference since Andy Burnham came to power, campaigners have said.

    The action – planned by Defend Our Juries (DOJ)  for the opening day of the  Liverpool conference on 27 September – is expected to result in mass arrests. 

    Since its proscription in July 2025 under Keir Starmer’s leadership, police have arrested more than 3,600 people for showing support for Palestine Action. Officers have carried away hundreds of elderly and disabled people, as well as teachers, doctors and religious leaders.

    The upcoming action is intended to put pressure on the new prime minister to depart from Keir Starmer’s policy of denying the genocide in Gaza and treating domestic dissent as terrorism. 

    Campaigners note that an increasing number of Palestine Action activists are facing terrorism-related sentencing provisions in British courtrooms, despite not being charged with terrorism offences. 

    …

    Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2026/09/18/hundreds-set-to-defy-palestine-action-ban-at-labour-party-conference/

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel's genocide.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.

  • Pro-Israel Group Condemned for Demanding UK Ban on Doctors Without Borders

    Spread the love

    Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Medics care for patients at a clinic set up by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treating severe injuries and burns sustained in Israeli bombardment, at the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 24, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)

    “Support for Israel requires you to be against everything good in this world, like an organization which sends doctors to conflict areas to save human lives,” said one observer.

    Doctors Without Borders on Saturday condemned allegations made by a British pro-Israel lobby group, which called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to investigate and potentially proscribe the group, whose medical providers and other humanitarian workers provide lifesaving aid in 70 countries and have worked in Palestine during Israel’s assault there.

    As The Telegraph reported, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKFLI) wrote to Mahmood as well as the Charity Commission and Fundraising Regulator, calling on the Labour government to investigate Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

    RECOMMENDED…

    Hamas Israel Conflict

    IDF Condemned for Refusal to Probe Deadly Attacks on Doctors Without Borders, World Central Kitchen Staff

    Palestine Action court case

    Trump Admin Declares UK Anti-Genocide Group Palestine Action a Terrorist Organization

    The group claimed at least two of MSF’s workers who were killed by Israeli forces, physiologist Fadi Al Wadiya and driver Nasser Hamdi Abdelatif Al Shalfouh, had connections to terrorist groups in Gaza.

    Palestine Islamic Jihad published a poster earlier this year naming Wadiya as a “martyr commander,” and UKFLI claimed Al Shalfouh was a sniper for a Hamas battalion.

    MSF acknowledged the poster regarding Wadiya in February and said the medical group “had no indication that Fadi Al Wadiya might have been involved in military activity of any kind prior to his killing by the Israeli Forces.”

    “If the Israeli authorities had any reliable information about Fadi’s involvement in military activity, they never shared it with MSF either prior to his killing or when we reached out immediately after he was killed to ask for clarifications around the circumstances of his death,” the group added. “We would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity. Any employee who engages in military activity would pose a danger to our staff and patients.”

    UKFLI sent its report on MSF to Mahmood asking her to ban the group, as the Labour government proscribed the protest group Palestine Action last year, labeling it a terrorist group under the Terrorism Act. The government took that action after members of the group vandalized planes at a military base.

    The designation put Palestine Action on the same legal footing as Al Qaeda in the UK and made membership of the group—or even expressions of support for it—punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

    The demand for the same designation for MSF, said former British Army general Charlie Herbert, was “absolutely grotesque.”

    MSF doctors and healthcare workers have treated thousands of Palestinians in Gaza since Israel began its onslaught there in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. At least 15 people working with the organization have been killed by Israeli forces. The group is also currently providing humanitarian and medical aid in Sudan as the civil war there has displaced millions of people and collapsed the healthcare system; in Yemen as the conflict between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government troops has escalated; and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is facing an Ebola outbreak as well as humanitarian crises exacerbated by years of conflict.

    “I work in aid, and when people ask who to support I always say MSF,” said researcher and activist Philip Proudfoot. “MSF, wherever I’ve been, are right there on the front, in dangerous conditions, in isolated outposts, providing life-saving support. They’re heroes. UK lawyers for Israel are not fit to wash their scrubs.”

    US-based researcher Shaiel Ben-Ephraim said the report by UKLFI demonstrates that “support for Israel requires you to be against everything good in this world, like an organization which sends doctors to conflict areas to save human lives.”

    Article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel's genocide.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.

  • Palestine activists appeal ‘unprecedented’ terror sentences

    Spread the love

    https://youtu.be/gv24jq6vkA0

    Palestine Action activists are appealing their unprecedented terrorism convictions. Their sentencing in June 2026 was the first time in British legal history that criminal damage convictions were sentenced as terrorism.

    At a press conference in London, Simon Natas, the lawyer for Ellie Kamio, Charlotte Head, Fatema Zainab and Samuel Corner, told the press that in his 15 years working on similar cases, he would have been completely shocked if any of those were charged with a terrorism connection.

    Also speaking were Emma and Sukaina – the mothers of Ellie and Fatema – as well as Dr James Smith and Dr Shahd Hammouri.

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel's genocide.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.